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Despite my busy schedule today, I need to complete this task before it fades away…

This topic follows the discussion I have with S. Fuad (my dojo mate) after last night class and to share with it everyone else:

"It doesn't matter why it works. It only matters that it works." So say a soke of a martial art system.

For a start, let use handwriting skill as an example. Some of us started to learn to write at kindergarten, some even started before that. Some of us can't even stand looking at our own handwritings let alone showing them to others. My wife is one of those. She said that she got the ugliest handwriting. For all purpose and intend, her handwriting remains consistent and readable to all concerned. On the other hand, my handwriting ranges from bad to good depending on the purpose and intend. Bad -- when I am making notes for myself, sometimes after a couple of weeks I find that I can't understand what was written. Somewhere in between -- when I making notes to my subordinates. Good -- when I write to my superiors, even then not just the handwriting but the grammar and spellings, etc. How does this relate to the statement above? When our handwriting is legible, it doesn't matter. But given the care and patience, we can improve our handwriting for purpose of presentation, e.g. proportionate letter and spacing, putting the dots and crosses at the right places, etc.

We talked about muscle memory. The reason why some of us cannot vary our handwritings for diffe
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I have trained with past sempai and past sensei and find some of their technical skill even at 3rd dan not much different from when they were at 3rd kyu. Some are still grasping to find "their" Aikido at a level when they should be polishing and perfecting their basics.

In karate training, the pattern of training is based on a repeated cycle of kihon, kata and kumite. The difficulty and intensity of training increases at every cycle up to 2nd dan and then tampered off after that level. The emphasis of the training starts with form, adding on speed and strength at every kyu/dan level and then changing towards soft, subtle and flowing form. The progression in this percussion art is from hard to soft while stressing on perfection of form (posture and basics) all the time. Hirokazu Kanazawa sensei (10th karate and a leading taichi practitioner in Japan) always reminded his instructors and yudansha, "What's good for you is not good for your students". By this, he meant that we should always keep to the basics and teach the variations according to the understanding and the level of skill of the students. The maxim of martial art trainings is always to strive for "minimum effort, maximum effect"; lengthy and fancy techniques are just food for the ego.

What are the training goals in Aikido?

In Daito-ryu Aikijujitsu (the forefather of Aikido) it is said that there
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